Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to surgical forceps having components to treat tissue and/or monitor tissue treatment. More particularly, the present disclosure relates to open or endoscopic surgical forceps adapted to treat tissue and/or to sense tissue properties, and methods and systems for monitoring (e.g., optical, thermal, and/or electrical) of tissue during a surgical procedure.
Description of Related Art
In many surgical procedures, body vessels, e.g., blood vessels, ducts, adhesions, fallopian tubes, or the like are sealed to defunctionalize or close the vessels. Traditionally, staples, clips or sutures have been used to close a body vessel. However, these traditional procedures often leave foreign body material inside a patient. In an effort to reduce foreign body material left within the patient and to more effectively seal the body vessel, energy techniques that seal or fuse tissue by heating the tissue have been employed.
The process of radio-frequency (RF) tissue fusion involves clamping the tissue between two electrodes while holding opposing tissue faces under pressure. A controlled RF voltage is then applied so that the RF current generates heat, and tissue transformations such as denaturation and dehydration are induced by the combined heat and pressure.
Endoscopic or open forceps are particularly useful for sealing since forceps utilize mechanical action to constrict, grasp, dissect and/or clamp tissue. Current vessel-sealing procedures utilize RF treatment to heat and desiccate tissue causing closure and sealing of vessels or tissue. Other treatment methods are known in the art; however, very few surgical instruments have the capability to treat tissue and monitor tissue treatment without the use of additional surgical instruments.